Читать книгу Better Leaders Ask Better Questions - Lindsay Ph.D Tighe - Страница 17

The previous chapter provided some valuable insight into helping us think about our role as a leader and the way we go about getting things done. I am sure that most of us will relate to that sense of conformity and ‘fitting in’, and also of unconsciously conforming to the way things are done in certain workplace cultures rather than by a way of our choosing.

I’d now like to take some time to highlight what other factors are at play in our role definition that need to be given further consideration to help us deal with the challenge of being less of a ‘teller’ and more of an ‘asker’. I always find that when we consider the prospect of asking more questions of someone instead of telling them what to do, there is some internal resistance that comes from both the person who is doing the asking and the person being asked. In this chapter, I will attempt to deal with some of the actual and perceived issues that arise for a manager or leader as they assume the role of an ‘asker’, and later we will deal with issues involving the person who is being asked.

I am going to work through a practical example that you will be able to relate to and that will help to demonstrate the points I’d like to make. Let’s imagine that a manager has a staff member who has worked with them for some time. They have a good working relationship and the staff member is a valued team member. Historically, mainly due to a lack of awareness, the manager has been more of a ‘teller’ than an ‘asker’ and so they have created an habitual way of responding to people in their team.

The example we will use is where a team member presents to their manager with a problem and the manager simply responds by advising the team member what to do. Indeed, the manager identifies with the ‘telling’ space because they consider themselves to be an expert in their field and have always believed that dealing with problems in this way was best. However, fortunately the manager has recently attended a workshop where they learnt the skill of asking Better Questions. Whilst at the workshop, the manager realises that they had been too much of a ‘teller’ in the past and decides that when they return to work they will start to ask some of those Better Questions.

The manager returns to work after the workshop, and they have not been back at work long when a staff member approaches them with a problem, again with the expectation that the manager will provide a solution for them – after all, this is what has always happened in the past. The manager is perhaps a little apprehensive about changing their approach and asking some Better Questions, believing their staff member will not be happy if they adopt this approach. Maybe the staff member will think that the manager is simply in a bad mood and things will shortly return to normal. Maybe the staff member will think that the manager doesn’t have an answer to the problem and is turning it around as a question because of their own incompetence. Perhaps the staff member will think that the manager is trying to test them or trip them up and so they will feel suspicious of the manager’s intentions. Possibly the manager is letting the staff member know, in a roundabout way, that they are tired of staff coming to them with problems. Alternatively, the staff member might cynically think that the manager has read the latest book on leadership practices or recently attended a training program, and once the manager has tried out a few new things they will soon get back to being their usual self! Whatever the case, you will see that the fact that the manager has switched to being an ‘asker’ is not viewed very positively; in fact, they may now be perceived as incompetent, grumpy, untrustworthy or, as mentioned above, simply in a bad mood!

You can see from this example that once you have overcome the hurdle of dealing with your own perceptions of your role, you will need to start thinking about how you can deal with how others perceive your role, in particular those people who report to you. If we have formed a certain way of interacting with our people and we suddenly change, there is a good chance it is not going to be well received. Once we have established a way of doing things, it will potentially be more challenging to change because of existing perceptions. However, change is certainly possible and it may be easier than you think.